With, more than a million schools and 18,000-plus higher education institutions, India is a land of edtech opportunities. The estimates peg the India education opportunity to be in excess of $100 billion and the edtech landscape moving to more than $70 billion by 2020, up from $20 billion estimated in 2015.
Technology is becoming a necessity for education modernisation in India. Education-technology is the sector to build the next wave of startups, impacting classrooms and learners of tomorrow: since it encompasses not just the traditional opportunities but making a technology play in the unregulated and high spiral space of edtech. It is for this opportunity that a lot of overseas edtech companies are beginning to make a foray into India.
Consider for example, CodersTrust, a company funded by the World Bank and UNDP as a global edtech organisation. Coderstrust founders have made India their base now and will potentially impact a large generation of future ready IT professionals and coders. Another company that’s expected to collaborate with the edtech ecosystem in India and leverage mutual strengths is Ahhaa.co. Going forward, every year more than 10-15 global edtech startups will start seeing the India horizon to explore.
The space of learning analytics in education management coupled with more immersive learning are all set to change the landscape of content consumption and its tangible impact.
Every learning must have an expected outcome and unless that is sorted out, the chasm between “good to have” and “must have” cannot be crossed. There is also a new avenue of education management where professionals either change career tracks mid-way or pick up non-traditional careers in the beginning itself. If someone wants to be scuba diver or a para-glider as a professional, there are inherent challenges in finding the right institute and trainer. However, companies like Classboat, having lived in 12 different countries, have made it possible now for people to pursue their passions as careers.
As for the Indian edtech space, the accelerators, venture partners, investors and startups are confident about the mid to long-term potential of the space. The traditional edtech space was known more for the solutions related to tutoring, online delivery of professional courses, test preparation and entrance exams readiness, market place for edtech solutions and language learning to name a few.
However, in the last 16-18 months, the there is more impetus on virtual classrooms, blended learning, adaptive assessments, and Gamification. This constructive shift of focus has already resulted in 1,000-plus companies, with 120-plus funded in the last five years, and $200 million-plus invested in 2015-16. Mumbai Angels, Inventus Capital Partners, 500 Startups, Sequoia, USF, Indian Angels have been the most active investors, as indicated by a report released by Tracxn.
It seems that Indian edtech will evolve and exhibit more innovations in the months to come, giving scale through technology to the huge unmet needs of education in a country with 1.25 billion people. This, coupled with the Digital India Mission, Atal Schemes and DIPP Initiatives, will become a formidable combination to make Indian edtech startups reach a global scale.
The author is CEO, EDUGILD
Guest Author
Rishi is currently the Chief Executive of EDUGILD, India’s first edtech startup accelerator and consulting Faculty with Leading Educational Institutes. He had a corporate career of 21 years in coveted roles with leading organizations namely Sony, Qualcomm, Castrol, Ericsson and Tata Lucent to name a few. Rishi has handled strategic and leadership roles in sales, marketing, business development, people management and corporate strategy. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering, Degree in Law(LLB) followed by two masters degrees each from IMI New Delhi and Pune University.
